Midterm Grades

Midterm grades present a moment to reflect on your progress so far and set goals for the rest of the semester, in all classes, not just INQ. In this class, the midterm grades are a snapshot of where you are in the class so far, but are a limited snapshot. They don't include the two video projects which make up a good portion of your grade (and are graded somewhat differently), and the midterm grades only include 6 out of 15 weeks of blogging. The blog grade really dominates the midterm grade average because overall blogging is 40% of your grade. For the midterm grade, the other things taken into account are Class Preparation and Participation, In-class Writings, and a small bit of the Campus Safari.

Again because it is only truly based on the first 6 weeks, things are a bit compressed. For example, if you got a zero on an in-class writing because you didn't watch a video, it is one of only about 6 in-class writings, instead of one in 15. Or, if you have done part of an assignment, that too, might weigh on you. I often remind students how important it is to complete the whole assignment and answer the whole question on exams, etc. If you wrote about the articles we read in your in-class writing but didn't connect them to the video, you completed 50% of the assignment, which is an F. The same holds true for blog posts: 2 are due each week, so if you do only one, the highest amount of points you could receive is 50%. There are close to 10 students in my two classes who have missed 5 or more blog posts, out of 12. That gives you an F or close to it for a significant portion of your grade so far. However, things like participation and preparation, for most of you, brought your grade up a bit.

Why am I telling you this? So you can make a plan to bring your grade up if needed or else make a plan to maintain your grade without letting it slip as the semester progresses. If you're not sure how to do that or what areas need work, or if you're confused about your midterm grade, please plan to come to office hours and talk to me about it before you let things go longer without getting clarification or help.

Here is the grade breakdown for my two classes:

Grade and #of Students:

A range: 9

B range: 17

C range: 2

D range: 5

F: 2